Stonehedge homebred Sunny Breeze, a front-running winner of his first two career starts, switched tactics and came from off the pace to keep his perfect record intact with a head victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Concern at Laurel Park.

The eighth running of the seven-furlong Concern for 3-year-olds, honoring the first Maryland-bred winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), was the first of four stakes worth $450,000 in purses headlined by the listed $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs.

With Laurel summer meet-leading jockey Jaime Rodriguez aboard, as he had been for his two prior races at Delaware Park, Sunny Breeze ($12.60) completed the distance in 1:24.30 over a fast main track.

“When you win allowance races and then you have to step up in to stakes company, more often than not you find you don’t have enough horse. I didn’t think that was going to be the case with him,” winning trainer Edward T. ‘Ned’ Allard said. “Jaime really liked this horse and he thought he was just learning how to run, and Jaime doesn’t flower his races up. He’s a straight-shooter when he gives his opinion. The horse has been sharp, he’s been feeling good. He had his work cut out for him and he prevailed. I was real pleased with him.”

New York shipper El Capi, the program favorite, broke awkwardly from his rail post and was last two jumps out of the gate before making a bold surge up the inside to take the lead through a quarter-mile in 23.29 seconds with Sunny Breeze content to track in second racing in the two path and Celtic Contender in the clear in third.

“When I looked at the race I thought there was a couple of speed horses inside that can go so let’s see if we can try something new and bring him off the pace a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “But he’s so quick he popped right out of there and I didn’t see [El Capi], then I see him running up and I let him go and just sat outside and tracked him to see how he goes. He was a little bit confused in the beginning but once he felt [Celtic Contender] outside he was game. When we got to the quarter pole and the other horse got a head in front of him, he never let the other one go by.”

Sunny Breeze wrested a short lead from El Capi midway around the far turn but lost it to Celtic Contender after a half-mile in 46.58. The two straightened for home together and dueled down the stretch until Sunny Breeze edged clear inside the eighth pole, then withstood a dramatic late surge on the far outside by 24-1 long shot Willy D’s to win by a neck.

It was a half-length back to Celtic Contender in third and another 5 ¾ lengths to Play Harder in fourth, snapping the latter’s three-race win streak. El Capi bled and was pulled up before the wire by jockey Mychel Sanchez. Barksdale was scratched.

“The races that I rode him before, I told the trainer he can run. He’s going to be a nice horse,” Rodriguez said. “He said he was going to try him in the stake and see how he goes. He was impressive. He was game today, all the way to the end. Once [Celtic Contender] gave up, he was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m done.’ Then I look outside and saw the other horse coming and when he saw him he kicked again. He’s got fight.”

Allard, best known as the trainer of Hall of Famer Mom’s Command, has been associated with Stonehedge of Gil and Marilyn Campbell since they began owning and breeding horses in Florida in the 1980s, and has maintained his association as Marilyn continues the operation following Gil Campbell’s death in September 2021 at age 91.

“The Campbells have been very loyal clients and it’s been an absolute joy training for them,” Allard said. “I bought their first horse 42 years ago by the name of Ski Resort. I bought him at a sale in New York off of [Alfred G.] Vanderbilt and he turned out to be a very nice horse. In fact, he won the day Marilyn and Gil got married. He won again on their first anniversary and again on their second anniversary. It was amazing.”

Allard said he had not looked beyond the Concern for Sunny Breeze, a gelded chestnut son of Cajun Breeze that debuted with a seven-length triumph over older horses in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight May 22 and then beat winners his own age by 1 ½ lengths going six furlongs July 8.

“Anytime a horse can reel off three in a row and win a stake, he’s legit,” Allard said. “I don’t like the put the cart before the horse. He needed to prove himself today and I thought he did. How far he wants to go I’m not really sure but who knows. He might go further. He might have an easier time doing that, I don’t know. It’s a process of thinking about it.”

Concern, trained by the late Dickie Small, won seven of 30 career starts and more than $3 million in purse earnings from 1993-95. His 1994 season included wins in the Breeders’ Cup and Arkansas Derby (G2), seconds in the Travers (G1), Super Derby (G1) and Ohio Derby (G2) and thirds in the Preakness (G1), Haskell (G1), Molson Export Million (G2) and Round Table (G3).

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